The District Court in Sevlievo has ordered Sevlievo Municipality to pay €10,000 in compensation to a woman who was struck by a falling tree branch while sitting on a bench in Chernichkite Park.
She lost consciousness after being hit, suffered a concussion, a head haematoma and a bleeding wound on her back that left a permanent scar. After the municipality refused to compensate her, she took the case to court and won at first instance.
Accident or negligence?
The court found that the municipality had failed to prove that it had fulfilled its obligations to inspect and maintain the trees in the park before the incident.
There were no inspection or monitoring records for 2025, the year in which the accident occurred, despite testimony from a municipal witness that mandatory inspections are carried out in May and June.
The documents submitted by the municipality concerned other areas, while the only expert assessment specifically covering Chernichkite Park had been prepared more than a year before the accident, according to the court’s ruling.
The court therefore concluded that, given this failure to fulfil its obligations, the woman’s injuries could not be considered the result of a random event, as the municipality had argued.
The victim did not show sufficient care for her own health?
The court also rejected the municipality’s argument that the woman had contributed to the accident “by failing to exercise the necessary attention and care for her health”.
According to the ruling, she could not have known that the tree was dangerous and had no realistic opportunity to avoid the falling branch because everything happened within seconds.
The expert evidence concluded that the cause of the accident was the failure of the officials responsible for maintaining the park’s ornamental vegetation.
The court found a direct causal link between that failure and the non-material damage suffered by the woman.
From a walk in the park to emergency care and surgery
The incident occurred on 17 June 2025.
Two women were walking in Chernichkite Park with their children. They sat on one of the benches in the central part of the park while the children played nearby.
Suddenly, they heard the sound of a branch breaking.
The two women instinctively jumped up and ran. One managed to move far enough away, while the other was trapped beneath a large broken branch.
Men sitting nearby rushed to lift the branch from her body, while other women ran to a nearby establishment to get water and ice.
When she regained consciousness, the woman was dizzy and her vision was blurred.
A large haematoma quickly developed on her head, while blood was flowing from a wound on her back.
Her friend drove her to the emergency department.
After being examined by a surgeon, she was advised to be admitted to hospital but refused because she was solely responsible for caring for her two children, aged five and eight.
During the night, however, her condition worsened and she went back to hospital.
She was admitted to the surgical ward with a diagnosis of head injury and concussion with loss of consciousness.
Doctors documented a 5 cm head haematoma, abrasions on her back, wounds and haematomas on the right side of her back.
Was the accident really unavoidable?
The injured woman brought a claim against Sevlievo Municipality for non-material damages.
The municipality contested the claim.
According to the court ruling, its defence argued that all legal requirements for maintaining the park had been complied with and that the accident had been purely accidental.
The municipality maintained that it could not be held responsible and that “the injured woman had failed to exercise the necessary attention and care for her health”.
At the same time, two municipal officials called as witnesses were unable to say how many inspections had actually been carried out in the park.
The court subsequently noted that there were no documents proving that an expert inspection for hazardous vegetation had been carried out specifically in Chernichkite Park.
The ruling is not final and may be appealed before the Gabrovo District Court.
According to information obtained by “Za Istinata”, Sevlievo Municipality has already filed an appeal.
